Hey, I’m James and welcome to the free version of SCALE 89. My goal is to help people understand technology, software, and high growth investing. I’m sharing my ideas, insights and perspective on Tech so readers all over can learn from me. This article is free and you can share it with friends or family!

The Bitcoin Boom & New Startups

We are seeing an influx of new companies, coins, and exchanges as more people move into Bitcoin and Ethereum. My personal investments in Bitcoin and Ethereum have gone up 4X+ and they slow no signs of slowing down. Some people are even paying millions for NFT art that lives on the Ethereum network and blockchain. It is hard to keep up with all these new trends happening all at once! In this article, I share my perspective and view on the new platform — BitClout.

What is BitClout?

BitClout is a new social media network where you can invest in others via Creator Coins. It is essentially a way to buy into people and their reputations. BitClout is like a combination of Twitter, Instagram, and Twitch and it works with the Bitcoin blockchain. I am seeing celebrities, NFT artists, Tech CEO’s, popular influencers, and anyone with an large online identity on BitClout. Similar to the NFT space, anyone can sign up and be a part of it, but the high value is mostly being concentrated in people that have existing followings via Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube. BitClout is new so anyone can sign up and start to build a new following on this platform. If you care about building your brand, you should definitely consider BitClout as another online brand extension or identity.

Check out my BitClout page here: https://bitclout.com/u/JamesCarter

PRO TIP: When you create your account, set your founders reward to 99% so you can accumulate coins while they are cheap!

In BitClout, you are able to buy Creator Coins from anyone on the platform using the BitClout coin. As you can see above, the popular accounts include Elon Musk, Naval, Chamath, Mr Beast, and Ariana Grande. The price of the creator coins varies ranging from $1 to $66,000 depending on the popularity of the coin and the number of people buying it. To purchase the creator coins, you will need to transfer Bitcoin into BitClout coin. You can also buy BitClout from individuals and have them transfer it to your BitClout account / wallet. There is a Bitcoin transaction fee to buy the BitClout coin on the platform and the fee can be very at at times. Please be mindful about the fees and check different days to see if the fee is lower.

BitClout Profile Example

WhaleSharkdotPro is an example of a user on BitClout with a very large following. His creator coin price is at $23,615, he has 4,387 followers, and has 217 coins in circulation. As he gets more followers, more people will likely buy his coin and the price will keep going up (in theory). This person has around 32,000 followers on Twitter so he has a large following already. Just imagine he his following on BitClout keeps growing…his coin could become very expensive over time.

Meme Culture

BitClout is another social media platform for people to post ideas, thoughts, images, and memes. You could easily re-use content from other platforms like Twitter and Instagram and just post the content on different days or times. BitClout has a culture with memes, jokes, and people trying to go viral. They recently added the feature to ReClout something which is like a Retweet so people are incentivized to get likes, comments, and ReClouts. It has a very similar culture to Twitter.

PRO TIP: Create content and post once a day!

Popular People on BitClout

• Andy Artz

• Jake Paul

• Alexis Ohanian

• Grant Cardone

• Farokh

• Steve Aoki

• Tyler Winklevoss

• Pamela Anderson

• Diplo

• John Legere

• Kygo

Important Tips!!

• When you create an account with BitClout, the first thing you do is buy your own coin. Do this before you tell anyone so you can buy your coin while it is cheap. My coin went from $0 to $44 in about 8 hours because other people started buying it. As always, this is not advice and please read my disclosure. There is significant risk associated with any new platform or coin.

• Change your Founder Reward: The founder reward is a payment that you get in BitClout. The default is 10% and many people recommend increasing it when you get started to 99%. You can always lower it after you purchase some of your own coin.

• Connect your phone number to BitClout: If you connect your phone number, they give you some free BitClout coin during the sign up process. You can use the coin to buy your own coin. They gave me around $7 in free BitClout coin.

• Watch out for high transaction fees when buying BitClout coin. You may need to wait until the fee comes down to a lower cost. I’m still trying to learn and understand this myself but I’ve heard that the fee is lower on certain days. This is similar to the high Ethereum gas fees.

• Lower your expectations: This platform is new and still growing. I would not expect anything or expect to make money. Think about early days for Twitter vs. where Twitter is now. It could take many years for BitClout to expand and become more valuable.

• Build your following: I see BitClout is another platform to find new followers. You can advertise your other accounts on your page to drive traffic to other pages like Twitter, Instagram, or your personal website.

• Treat it like a game: Just like other social media platforms, you can treat it like a game to get followers, create content, and increase the cost of your own. Don’t think of it like an investment, especially since it is brand new.

Check out my BitClout Link Here: https://bitclout.com/u/JamesCarter

BitClout Investment?

It is early days for BitClout and it is impossible to predict where the platform will be in 2-5 years. Will you make real money (or Bitcoin) on BitClout? — I have no idea! In a perfect scenario, your coin would go up in value and you could one day sell your coin and exchange it for Bitcoin. Right now, there is no easy way to do this. I have seen people sell BitClout to other people on platforms like Reddit. I talked with a person selling $1,800 USD worth of BitClout. Keep in mind this is a new platform and I imagine they will improve this experience in the future. I personally see BitClout as a new social media platform and would NOT consider it an investment.

Repeat: At this current time, I do NOT consider BitClout to be an investment. It is a brand new and risky platform and coins may lose value. Treat it like a game at the beginning.

FAQs

1. What is BitClout? BitClout is a new social media platform and network where you can invest into the reputation or clout of users. BitClout has creator coins and you can buy coins for yourself and other people.

2. How do I purchase coins? BitClout is a coin and you can purchase it with Bitcoin directly in the website. You can also purchase BitClout directly from other people online. I was able to purchase some from Reddit but please keep in mind there is risk from purchasing from a random person.

3. Does BitClout have an app? No — BitClout is a website at this time. I would assume they are building an app in the future.

4. Is BitClout an investment? BitClout is a new platform and there is risk involved. In my view, BitClout is more like a game. Think of it like being new to Twitter or Instagram in the early days. BitClout will change over the next 12 months as they grow and hire more people. At this current time, there is no easy way to convert your BitClout back into Bitcoin. This platform is new so that may change in the future. (I do not give financial or investment advice and please read my full disclosure).

5. What content does well on BitClout? Most people do a combination of Twitter style posts and Instagram like pictures. There is a character max of 280 characters similar to Twitter. You can also tag users with the @ symbol in your posts. Test out and try different forms of content.

James Carter

James Carter is a Tech writer and investor based in Washington, DC. He covers stocks, ETFs, options, and high growth technology companies in the newsletter SCALE 89. He has published over 100 articles for over 40,000 followers across Twitter, Substack, Medium, and Public. His work has reached over 1 million people and plans to keep growing and expanding his online reach for SCALE 89.

Thank you for your support!

Disclosure: Not Financial Advice / Not Investing Advice

James Carter, SCALE 89, and The Author does NOT provide financial, investment, legal or tax advice. None of my content can be construed as advice. The author is not advising you to buy or sell a security. This newsletter, article and my tweets are for informational and educational purposes only. By reading my content, you are acknowledging that this is not advice. Please note that my positions can change at any time.

I currently have Bitcoin, Ethereum, and now BitClout in my portfolio.

BitClout and BitClout coin is volatile and may lose value.